Robert Kuhn to 'Persevere' in new release

Article Contributed by Robert Kuhn Music | Published on Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Eclectic songwriter and surfer from Galveston Island, Texas, Robert Kuhn, is releasing his third studio album, Persevere, a psychedelic folk/pop rocknroller that is draws its name from the rollercoaster of experiences we’re all facing these days.

Kuhn was hospitalized for weeks last fall after suffering a tragic car crash while touring in Western Colorado with their three-piece band. Unable to fly and with lots of help, uninsured Kuhn finished the last leg of the tour in another used minivan and returned home with over a hundred thousand dollars in medical debt and need of some serious healing. The quiet winter gave the him the time and space to complete the new album with friend and co-producer Rob Bastien.

Bastien moonlights as a graveyard shift psychiatric nurse in the Galveston Prison Hospital ER. They maintained his late-night schedule by spending the eerie pre-dawn hours in the studio experimenting with sound and substance to catch the vibe while everyone else slept. Rich synthesizer layers mixed with organic and electronic instruments create a lush, epic and spatial soundscape for the raspy, honest lyrics and otherwise acoustic music Kuhn writes.

The pandemic hit just about the time the masters were ready and Bastien was moved into the COVID unit frontline trenches to treat the overflow of sick and dying prisoners being shipped to Galveston’s UTMB from other outbreak prisons around the state. The climate is tough to release an album, but it is the time and “Persevere,” the albums seventh track, seemed to be the only title fitting.

This progressive album is a sonic trajectory following Kuhn’s first two releases, Everybody Knows (World Folk/Blues) and Maria the Gun (Americana), and although it is comprised of singles now being released each month, is meant to be heard in its entirety as an album, carrying the listener through humanities range of emotions, textures and colors on a wild and contemplative journey through the internal and external cosmos.

The current single, “Low Way” is a catchy electrified upbeat psyche-dance version of a folk song about the tallest sycamore tree getting chopped down first. Check it out.